Lack of trouble at the women's march

[Anonymous]

Loved it!

Back in the day, we demonstrated with no cell phones at all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was good news. I have to admit that I was downtown on Friday and found the protesters behavior scary enough that it kept me from the women's march.

B.S. You weren't anywhere near the march.

I was there the entire day. I saw not a single instance of violence or hostility. Everyone was polite, pleasant, friendly, despite the crushing crowds. We were able to thread our way through the crowds with no trouble, no pushing, no angry words. EVERY SINGLE PERSON I encountered was polite and friendly. It was an amazing day!!!

NP here. The PP you were responding to was talking about FRIDAY - the day of the inauguration. There was a violent protest near Franklin Square that day.

Thank you. And we were within a block of it on K Street at the time it was happening so it seemed pretty out of control.

[Anonymous]

People were SO NICE. It was the nicest and most helpful crowd I have ever been in. Really great experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was good news. I have to admit that I was downtown on Friday and found the protesters behavior scary enough that it kept me from the women's march.

B.S. You weren't anywhere near the march.

I was there the entire day. I saw not a single instance of violence or hostility. Everyone was polite, pleasant, friendly, despite the crushing crowds. We were able to thread our way through the crowds with no trouble, no pushing, no angry words. EVERY SINGLE PERSON I encountered was polite and friendly. It was an amazing day!!!

NP here. The PP you were responding to was talking about FRIDAY - the day of the inauguration. There was a violent protest near Franklin Square that day.

I participated in the anti-inauguration march from Union Station to McPherson Square on Friday as well. While there were some violent anarchists (not associated with the sanctioned demonstrations, btw), this march was without incident. It's unfortunate that most of the reporting on Friday's demonstrations leave out the peaceful actions that took place. And of course, it's unfortunate that any violence happened at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I was one of the foreigners who posted here voicing safety concerns about the March, given my previous experience in other countries.

I went, and was DELIGHTED to be completely wrong!

However, my cell phone didn't work at all, and neither did my friends', so you must have had a magic phone

It varied. Near L'Enfant I couldn't get service, but by the time I got to Independence and 14th, I did. It was still slow uploading photos. Texts came in fine though. I think Verizon had some temporary towers? Maybe it depended on which carrier you had?

I have AT&T. Darn!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I was one of the foreigners who posted here voicing safety concerns about the March, given my previous experience in other countries.

I went, and was DELIGHTED to be completely wrong!

However, my cell phone didn't work at all, and neither did my friends', so you must have had a magic phone

It varied. Near L'Enfant I couldn't get service, but by the time I got to Independence and 14th, I did. It was still slow uploading photos. Texts came in fine though. I think Verizon had some temporary towers? Maybe it depended on which carrier you had?

I have Verizon. No service whatsoever. Not even texts. It came back later, after the march was over and people started dispersing. But during the march, nada.

Really. I have Verizon, did not arrive till after 2PM. The bicycle valet folks were using texts as proof of whose bike was who's and I got my text right away, and did not hear about any problems with that. I also managed to get pics posted to FB while the march was on.

I have verizon - and had zero service all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loved it!

Back in the day, we demonstrated with no cell phones at all!

apparently we did on saturday too! no service. which was fine by me.

[Anonymous]

I'm so glad it was peaceful!

I allowed my 17 yo DD to go while I was out of town. I was hesitant because I was sure there would be issues, but my DH kind of talked me down from my worst possible case of scenarios ledge and I relented on letting her go. I did have a moment of panic on Friday after I saw coverage of the protesters being destructive. I talked to her on the phone for a long time on expectations I had for her and personal responsibility.

I checked in more on Saturday than the mom of a 17 yo probably should. She had spotty coverage, which she told me, but did check in pretty frequently. I was also able to keep tabs by the photos she and her friends were posting on Instagram and other social media.

All of the stories she shared with me on Sunday when I got home were awesome! Experienced marchers teaching the younger ladies some secrets, like always bring your own TP, lol. She said she learned a lot and made some new friends/contacts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was scared that the bikers and/or crazy gun-totting Trumpers would be out in full force. I think they saw the crowds and ran their chicken-shit butts back into the hills!

Tangential - but I was standing in the crush when we started to hear a rumble in the distance. All of us thought it was the Bikers for Trump. And then we ALL CHEERED when it was the Batala drum corps! Somehow, the crowd made room for them to slowly drum their way down the block. It was truly one of the most inspiring moments for me.

We saw a Trump float. Everyone booed, and they turned onto a sidestreet. They had a police escort. That was the only negativity I saw during the march. Fortunately, that was a brief few seconds. What was really awful, was that there were four men on the float taking photos of the crowd, obviously trying to incite violence and then photograph it. But I saw no one complying. Everyone booed, but no violence, no obscene gestures. We were all in a good mood that day.

This was the same enormous Trump float that was causing car accidents all over town. What a bunch of douchecanoes. Hope they enjoy paying all those insurance deductibles.

[Anonymous]

The only obscene gesture I saw was from a guest or employee of the trump hotel - giving us the finger from the window of one of the upper floors. some folks returned in kind but some folks gave her the peace sign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't anticipate any issues at all, and there in fact, were zero issues. Everything was completely peaceful and I saw so many occasions of strangers helping strangers - it was great!

I think the scared or worried people fell into a few camps.
- Conservatives trying to dissuade people from going to keep numbers down
- People who generally live a life of fear, don't go into the city, and don't like to venture out and try new things.
- People who aren't as supportive of issues as they say they or pretend they are.

I know some people didn't go because of work conflicts, or because of issues with crowds - and I get that. But I'm specifically talking about those who expressed unwarranted concerns and worries.

Minwas one of those and given that Trump supporters would be in town I did not think it was unwarranted concern. I did not fall into any of your 3 arbitrary groups. I simply was concerned fights could break out and the crowds would make it difficult to get away from anything bad that happened. I do admit I was wrong and it was a great day. A fight did break out on my train though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was scared that the bikers and/or crazy gun-totting Trumpers would be out in full force. I think they saw the crowds and ran their chicken-shit butts back into the hills!

Tangential - but I was standing in the crush when we started to hear a rumble in the distance. All of us thought it was the Bikers for Trump. And then we ALL CHEERED when it was the Batala drum corps! Somehow, the crowd made room for them to slowly drum their way down the block. It was truly one of the most inspiring moments for me.

We saw a Trump float. Everyone booed, and they turned onto a sidestreet. They had a police escort. That was the only negativity I saw during the march. Fortunately, that was a brief few seconds. What was really awful, was that there were four men on the float taking photos of the crowd, obviously trying to incite violence and then photograph it. But I saw no one complying. Everyone booed, but no violence, no obscene gestures. We were all in a good mood that day.

This was the same enormous Trump float that was causing car accidents all over town. What a bunch of douchecanoes. Hope they enjoy paying all those insurance deductibles.

This is not how insurance works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't anticipate any issues at all, and there in fact, were zero issues. Everything was completely peaceful and I saw so many occasions of strangers helping strangers - it was great!

I think the scared or worried people fell into a few camps.
- Conservatives trying to dissuade people from going to keep numbers down
- People who generally live a life of fear, don't go into the city, and don't like to venture out and try new things.
- People who aren't as supportive of issues as they say they or pretend they are.

I know some people didn't go because of work conflicts, or because of issues with crowds - and I get that. But I'm specifically talking about those who expressed unwarranted concerns and worries.

The second one is me - I have major anxiety and live in constant fear that something will happen. Guess what? I went!!! I thought that this is a moment more important than my fears. I don't regret it for one minute. The vibe made me forget all my fears.

[Anonymous]

I was concerned about attending with my 5yo, but decided to go. Tiring, but we both had a great time.

Only slight moment of negativity--a couple of women were moving through the crowd in the opposite direction as the crowd marched west on Constitution. As they passed, one smiled and put her hand on the head of my 5yo, as if using her head to help maneuver through the crowd. As they passed, I noticed that they were wearing Trump paraphernalia. Grrr! My daughter and I were also the only AA marchers in our immediate area, so I also wondered if this played into their actions at all.

Other than that, the march was great. People even made room for us as we passed the few times I had to carry the kid through tight crowds. Very positive and upbeat atmosphere.

[Anonymous]

If you get in several accidents in one weekend, do you have to pay a deductible for each accident? Now I'm curious.